


your wife and daughter

by VeryImportantDemon



Series: rest now, rest well [1]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Me word vomiting onto a google doc, Nebula and Drax talk about losing people, Post-Endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 22:53:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18647752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeryImportantDemon/pseuds/VeryImportantDemon
Summary: “Thanos is dead,” Nebula says. Drax knows this. He should feel pleased, but he feels nothing.





	your wife and daughter

**Author's Note:**

> Rewatching Guardians 1, I caught the line at the end of the movie from Gamora to Drax - "Your wife and child will rest well knowing that you have avenged them." My mind immediately connected that to "You can rest now" and the fallout from Endgame so this happened.

“Thanos is dead,” Nebula says. Drax knows this. They all know this. He is not present when the Mad Titan melts into dust, but he can feel it. They all do, in a way. He feels the keen sting of Thanos’ touch like so many do. His beloved wife and their dear daughter were ripped from him. His life is a quest to avenge them, but what does he do know that they are avenged? He should feel pleased, but he feels nothing.

 

“I am aware,” he says. “We would not be leaving Terra with Quill and the god if he were still alive. I would make sure he was dead.”

 

Nebula does not speak for a few moments, neither of them do. She knows about his wife and child just like he knows about her sister. They have lost someone that they cannot get back. They are two of a very small number who know this pain. 

 

“I am deeply sorry,” Nebula says. “Killing Thanos could not bring back your family.”

 

“Of course it could not,” Drax says. “He killed them many years ago.”

 

Nebula pauses again. “I know,” she says. “I can tell that you are sad.”

 

Drax thinks about that for a few moments. “My wife and daughter are dead,” he says. “Thanos is dead, too. I should be happy that they are resting well now that they have been avenged.”

 

“But you aren’t,” Nebula says. “The sister that I knew is lost. It is Thanos’ fault and I should be happy that he is dead. That my sister is too avenged. I would like to dance on his grave. But I am not. I am… Empty. And I feel pity.”

 

“Pity?” Drax echoes. Why should Thanos’ project feel pity for him? 

 

“Pity,” Nebula repeats. “I pity him because he did not know the love I had for my sister. That you had for your wife and your daughter. I pity him because he is a wretched, miserable old fool.  I pity him because he is nothing and he was so filled with a twisted sense of balance that it killed him. There is an emptiness in me,” she says. “You have it.”

 

Somehow, Drax knows exactly what she speaks of. The hole that his family left when Thanos killed them. 

 

“I pity you, too,” Nebula says. “And me.”

 

Drax stands up, rage filling his chest. “Pity,” he spits. “I do not need nor do I want your pity, cyborg.”

 

“Well, you have it,” Nebula says, irritably. “Sit down, oaf. I am trying to comfort you like Gamora may have done.”

 

Drax slowly retakes his seat, his eyes narrowed slightly at her. “We were consumed for so many years by our emptiness,” she continues. “Our sense of balance. If you could kill Thanos, you would avenge your family. If I could defeat my sister, I would win my father’s affection. The world would be in order. I pity us because we wasted years on impossible dreams. I spent so many years hating my sister when we should have been on the same side and now the sister that I knew is dead. You spent years on your own search, but he is dead and you feel no better.”

 

“I do not,” Drax says, his voice low. The robot does make some sense. 

 

“But you will,” Nebula says. “You must not let Thanos’ idea of balance corrupt you. Your family may rest well knowing you have avenged them, but you must rest now. Do not waste time mourning what you do not have when what you do is before you.” 

 

Nebula stands, preparing to leave when Drax speaks. 

 

“You are my friend, blue robot,” he says. It is the only thanks he knows how to give. 

 

“And you are mine, humanoid,” Nebula says before disappearing into the bowls of the ship.

 

Drax feels emptiness, but there is something else there now. The desire for something new. 


End file.
